Disciplining theater and drama in the English department: Some reflections on ‘performance’ and institutional history

Abstract

Scholars are increasingly self‐conscious about how academic disciplines and discourses determine what “knowledges” can be produced. This essay explores how concepts of “performance” gained currency within the institutional history of English Departments without traditions of oral interpretation. By focusing on how this “keyword” is used in particular examples I suggest that certain cultural values ascribed to “performance"—whether as “transgression” or as “moral uplift” tap into larger anxieties about the changing nature of the academy, and the corresponding pressures placed upon professors of theatre, drama, and related disciplines.

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